Sometimes, life is strange. You think you've written out the perfect chapter, then someone comes along and tears out the page.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Other Tales - Part Three

I. Am. Supercow!!!

So a couple of weeks after my traumatic first pumping experience (time flies so fast! Raine is about to hit her 7-week mark!), I decided to try it again. Raine was still asleep and my breasts were leaky, achy and rock hard. Good time as any to pump.

As my seesters ate taho at the breakfast table (warning: this is not something you do at, say, McDonalds while you get your hashbrown, or in front of unsympathetic people, or in front of people you don't know too well--they would not want to see a deformed breast squirting milk), I set up the amazing ChuChu pump, whipped out a painful breast, started breathing ala Lamaze and turned on the pump. Wonders of wonders, I came up with about 6oz after maybe 20 minutes of ChuChu-ing.

In about three days, I had built a stock of 17oz. And I had great incentive. My seester from Dubai was taking me out to paint the town red while our mom watched the baby. And since I hadn't been out since Raine and I came home from the hospital (other than OB and pedia visits), I was super cabin fevered. All I wanted was a haircut.

Oh, we did have a trial run Wednesday night, when The Hubby and I went to a baby shower for one of our cell mates. Raine decimated 6oz and she was raging mad when the bottles of milk ran out. Good thing we were on our way home; otherwise my mom would've given her formula. So for an afternoon of painting, I had to make sure I left enough milk (as it turned out, Raine slept most of the time we were out, so she didn't drink too much).

Building up my 17oz stock though, the Amazing ChuChu finally gave up. Though I changed batteries, it was barely sucking. I was painfully overflowing with milk, and I pumped for 30 minutes, and all I came up with was 2oz.

Fortunately, The Hubby finally agreed to get an Avent pump. I would've settled for the manual one, but dear, dear Hubby got me the electric Avent that just pumps out your milk while you sit there. And with the Avent I discovered that pumping milk isn't painful at all! It was just that torture device ChuChu that hurt (but give it credit, it helped me when I needed it. I think I will keep the Amazing ChuChu for posterity's sake). And that petal massager isn't all hype. Thank God people actually took time and effort to study breastfeeding mechanics.

So now my new record is 7oz in 14 minutes--and I didn't empty the breasts, just took off enough to relieve them. I am such a supercow!

That makes Raine Superbaby. And to match, The Hubby gets to be Superdaddy. Superbaby, Superdaddy and Supercow don't exactly sound like the perfect family, but it works for me.